The paperback edition of C. S. E. Cooney’s Bone Swans (the first ever solo-author short fiction collection from Mythic Delirium Books) is now available for pre-order. You can reserve your copy at Amazon, Amazon UK or Barnes & Noble (and presumably more places will be selling it soon.)
 
Cooney’s book collects five fantasy novellas: “Life on the Sun,” “The Bone Swans of Amandale” (a knockout piece, original to this collection), “Martyr’s Gem” (previously featured in The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014), “How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One” and “The Big Bah-Ha.” But rather than try for the hard sell, I’m going to step aside and let some other folks whom you’re likely familiar with tell you why you don’t want to miss out on this book:
 

“C. S. E. Cooney is one of the most moving, daring, and plainly beautiful voices to come out of recent fantasy. She’s a powerhouse with a wink in her eye and a song in each pocket.”
—Catherynne M. Valente, New York Times-bestselling author of the Fairyland novels

“These stories are a pure joy. C. S. E. Cooney’s imagination is wild and varied, her stories bawdy, horrific, comic, and moving-frequently all at the same time. Her characters are wickedly appealing, and her language-O! her language. Lush, playful, poetic, but never obscure or stilted, it makes her magic more magic, her comedy more comic, and her tragic moments almost unbearable
—Delia Sherman, author of Young Woman in a Garden: Stories

“Like one of her characters, C. S. E. Cooney is a master piper, playing songs within songs. Her stories are wild, theatrical, full of music and murder and magic.”
—James Enge, author of Blood of Ambrose

“C. S. E. Cooney uses words like jewels, stringing them together on gold filigree sentences. Then she adds a beaded fringe of colorful characters-the living, the dead, the wronged, the righteous, the villainous, the vengeful, the divine. It’s a treasure chest of a collection, and it’s full of gems.”
—Sharon Shinn, author of the Elemental Blessings series

“These stories are rich, original fantasy with a sharp edge, peopled by vivid, engaging characters inhabiting fantastic worlds. This is a brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable collection.”
—Martha Wells, author of The Books of the Raksura series

“Cooney drafts lyrical prose that sparkles with brilliant imagery and compelling characters. I can’t wait to see what she does next!”
—Howard Andrew Jones, author of The Desert of Souls

 
#SFWApro